Methods and apparatus for characterizing a route in a fibre channel fabric

ABSTRACT

Methods and apparatus are provided for determining characteristics associated with routes in fibre channel networks. Techniques are provided for inserting time stamp information into frames transmitted from a source to a destination and back to the source. Time stamp information allows a supervisor associated with a source to determine characteristics such as round trip times, latency between hops, and connectivity to a destination for specific routes.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

The present application is related to U.S. patent application Ser. No.10/034,160 by Tom Edsall, Dinesh Dutt, and Silvano Gai and titledExtended ISL Header as of filing on Dec. 26, 2001, the entirety of whichis incorporated by reference for all purposes.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to fibre channel networks. Morespecifically, the present invention relates to methods and apparatus fordetermining characteristics associated with particular routes in fibrechannel networks.

2. Description of Related Art

Methods and apparatus for determining route characteristics in fibrechannel network are limited. Many fibre channel networks lack efficientmechanisms for performing functions such as determining connectivity toa destination, understanding the path followed by a specific data flow,evaluating the latency of each hop, tracing a route, etc.

It is therefore desirable to provide additional methods and apparatusfor improving the determination of route characteristics in fibrechannel networks with respect to some or all of the performancelimitations noted above.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

Methods and apparatus are provided for determining characteristicsassociated with routes in fibre channel networks. Techniques areprovided for inserting time stamp information into frames transmittedfrom a source to a destination and back to the source. Time stampinformation allows a supervisor associated with a source to determinecharacteristics such as round trip times, latency between hops, andconnectivity to a destination for specific routes.

In one embodiment, a method for providing route characteristicinformation in a fibre channel fabric is provided. A fibre channel frameis provided at a source fibre channel switch. The fibre channel frameidentifies the source fibre channel switch and a destination. The fibrechannel frame includes a loopback field indicating that the fibrechannel frame should be looped back to the source fibre channel switch.The fibre channel frame is transmitted downstream toward thedestination. The looped back fibre channel frame is received at thesource fibre channel switch. The loopback fibre channel frame includingtime stamp information associated with a plurality of fibre channelswitches between the source fibre channel switch and the destination.The time stamp information provides information for determiningcharacteristics associated with upstream and downstream transmissionbetween the source fibre channel switch and the destination.

In another embodiments, a method for providing route characteristicinformation in a fibre channel fabric is provided. A fibre channel frameis received at a core fibre channel switch. The the fibre channel frameincludes a loopback field, a source identifier, and time stampinformation. The time stamp information is associated with a pluralityof fibre channel switches the fibre channel frame passed through betweenthe source and the core fibre channel switch. It is determined whetherto forward the fibre channel frame or to loop back the fibre channelframe.

In still another embodiment, a fibre channel switch in a fibre channelfabric is provided. The fibre channel switch includes a processor, aninput interface, and an output interface. The processor is operable toprovide a fibre channel frame, the fibre channel frame identifying thesource fibre channel switch and a destination. The fibre channel frameincludes a loopback field indicating that the fibre channel frame shouldbe looped back to the source fibre channel switch. The output interfaceis coupled to the processor. The output interface is configured totransmit the fibre channel frame downstream toward the destination. Theinput interface is coupled to the processor. The input interface isconfigured to receive the looped back fibre channel frame at the sourcefibre channel switch. The loopback fibre channel frame includes timestamp information associated with a plurality of fibre channel switchesbetween the source fibre channel switch and the destination. The timestamp information provides information for determining characteristicsassociated with upstream and downstream transmission between the sourcefibre channel switch and the destination.

These and other features and advantages of the present invention will bepresented in more detail in the following specification of the inventionand the accompanying figures, which illustrate by way of example theprinciples of the invention.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The invention may best be understood by reference to the followingdescription taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, whichare illustrative of specific embodiments of the present invention.

FIG. 1 is a diagrammatic representation of a network that can use thetechniques of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagrammatic representation of a loopback frame.

FIG. 3 is a flow process diagram showing operations at a source fibrechannel switch.

FIG. 4 is a flow process diagram showing operations at a core fibrechannel switch.

FIG. 5 is a flow process diagram showing operations at a core fibrechannel switch determined to be a loopback fibre channel switch.

FIG. 6 is a flow process diagram showing operations for applying remotedomain loopback for determining connectivity.

FIG. 7 is a flow process diagram showing operations for applying remotedomain loopback for path discovery.

FIG. 8 is a diagrammatic representation of a fibre channel switch.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF SPECIFIC EMBODIMENTS

Reference will now be made in detail to some specific embodiments of theinvention including the best modes contemplated by the inventors forcarrying out the invention. Examples of these specific embodiments areillustrated in the accompanying drawings. While the invention isdescribed in conjunction with these specific embodiments, it will beunderstood that it is not intended to limit the invention to thedescribed embodiments. On the contrary, it is intended to coveralternatives, modifications, and equivalents as may be included withinthe spirit and scope of the invention as defined by the appended claims.

FIG. 1 is a diagrammatic representation of a fibre channel network thatcan use the techniques of the present invention. According to variousembodiments, a supervisor 103 associated with a fibre channel switch 101may wish to determine characteristics of a route from a source fibrechannel switch 101, to a fibre channel switch 121 associated with a host123, and back to the source fibre channel switch 101. A network nodethat sends a frame for characterizing a route back to a source uponreceiving the frame from the source is referred to herein as a loopbackfibre channel switch. Any logic, apparatus, or mechanism associated witha source fibre channel switch for generating messages or frames tocharacterize one or more routes is referred to herein as a supervisor.

It should be noted that a supervisor may be an entity distinct from asource fibre channel switch. However, it is also contemplated that thesupervisor can be integrated as part of a source fibre channel switch. Ahost 123 associated with a loopback fibre channel switch can be avariety of entities such as disk, a server, a client, an array of disks,etc. In order to determine characteristics of a route between sourcefibre channel switch 101 and loopback fibre channel switch 121,implementations using mechanisms such as ping and trace route arecontemplated. Using ping, one or more packets are transmitted from asource fibre channel switch 101 to a loopback fibre channel switch 121associated with a host 123.

In one embodiment, a frame sent from source fibre channel switch 101toward a host 123 travels through fibre channel switches 111, 113, 117,and 121. A frame returns to source fibre channel switch 101 throughfibre channel switches 121, 119, 115, and 111. Mechanisms such as pingprovide information on whether a host 123 associated with fibre channelswitch 121 is reachable. Ping also provides information on round-triptimes and average round-trip times for transmission between the sourceand the destination. However, mechanisms such as ping provide littleinformation on what route was chosen, the period of time taken betweenhops, etc.

Other mechanisms such as trace route allow a source fibre channel switchto incrementally transmit a frame to an increasing number of hops. Forexample, in a first round, a frame is transmitted only for a single hop.In this example, a frame is transmitted from fibre channel switch 101 toa fibre channel switch 111. The round-trip times would be measured. Inthe second round, the frame would be transmitted a total of two hopsfrom fibre channel switch 101 to fibre channel switch 111 and finally tofibre channel switch 113. The round-trip time would again be measured.Mechanisms such as trace route allow the determination of round-triptimes between a source and intermediate nodes to a destination. Nodes ina route between a source and a destination are referred to herein asintermediate nodes. Trace route provides more information thanmechanisms such as ping.

Trace route provides information on whether a destination node isreachable and also provides information on round-trip times between asource fibre channel switch and intermediate hops. However, trace routestill does not provide information detailing the break-up of theround-trip time. For example, trace route does not detail the returnpath characteristics. The methods and apparatus of the present inventionprovide techniques for efficiently implementing techniques such as pingand trace route in a fibre channel network using mechanisms that provideeven more information about the characteristics of a route.

In one example, the techniques of the present invention provideinformation on how much time it takes for a frame to travel from aswitch 101, through a switch 111, to a switch 113, and back through aswitch 111, and finally to a switch 101. According to variousembodiments, the latency for each hop in a route between a source andthe destination is measured for both upstream and downstreamtransmission. Transmission from a source to a destination is referred toherein as downstream transmission while transmission from a destinationto a source is referred to herein as upstream transmission. Mechanismsand logic for determining timing characteristics associated with a routeare referred to herein as remote domain loopback (RDL). A frametransmitted from a source to a destination and back to a source used toimplement RDL is referred to herein as a loopback frame. A transmissioninformation entry in a frame that indicates that the frame is being usedas a loopback frame is referred to herein as a loopback field or aloopback indicator.

Frames transmitted for determining route characteristics are referred toherein as RDL frames. According to various embodiments, a path followedfor a specific data flow in a fibre channel fabric can be characterizedand a route followed by data traffic can be understood. A determinationof connectivity in the fabric toward a specific destination node canalso be determined.

According to various embodiments, fibre channel switches in the fibrechannel fabric 131 can be synchronized. A variety of globalsynchronization protocols can be used. In one example, the Network TimeProtocol (NTP) is run on the fibre channel fabric. NTP is described inRFC 1059 titled Network Time Protocol, the entirety of which isincorporated by reference for all purposes. If a supervisor 103associated with a fibre channel switch 101 wishes to determinecharacteristics of a route to and from a fibre channel switch 121associated with a host 123, RDL frames can be transmitted toward theloopback fibre channel switch 121 associated with host 123. At each hop,time stamp information is added to the frame to allow characterizationof the route.

In one example, a frame may be transmitted from fibre channel switch 101at time 00.00 seconds exactly. It may take 0.01 seconds to reach fibrechannel switch 111, at which time fibre channel switch 111 adds timestamp information including 00.01 seconds. Each intermediate hop in theroute toward the destination also inserts time stamp information intothe frame. Information for characterizing latency between hops in aroute between a source and a loopback fibre channel switch is referredto herein as time stamp information. According to various embodiments,time stamp information includes a port number, a switch identifier, anda time stamp. When the RDL frame reaches a loopback fibre channel switch121, the fibre channel switch 121 does not forward the RDL frame to host123 and instead sends it back towards the source fibre channel switch101.

According to various embodiments, fibre channel switch 121 recognizesthat a host 123 is the end node. In another example, fibre channelswitch 121 may send a frame back towards the source fibre channel switch101 if the fibre channel switch 121 recognizes that the next hop towarda destination is an entity that does not support RDL frames. A networkentity that is not operable to add time stamp information to a loopbackframe does not support RDL according to various embodiments. A fibrechannel switch 121 may loop back the frame along an upstream route thatis different from the downstream route. Time stamp information at eachhop along an upstream route is added to the RDL frame. When a fibrechannel switch 101 receives the frame looped back from the loopbackfibre channel switch, a fibre channel switch 101 provides time stampinformation to a supervisor 103 to allow characterization of the route.

According to other embodiments, fibre channel switches in the fibrechannel fabric 131 are not synchronized. Nonetheless, valuableinformation can be acquired from time stamp information provided at eachhop. In one example, the total round-trip time for asymmetric routecould be obtained. Furthermore, changes in latency for a particular hopcould be determined even if the different switches in a fibre channelfabric had widely different times.

FIG. 2 is a diagrammatic representation of a frame that can be used toimplement RDL. According to various embodiments, a loopback indicator205 is located in the Extended Inter-switch Links (EISL) header 203. Inone example, the loopback indicator is a vendor unique code indicatingthat the frame is a loopback frame. EISL is described in applicationSer. No. ______ titled Methods And Apparatus For Encapsulating A FrameFor Transmission In A Storage Area Network by Thomas J. Edsall, DineshG. Dutt, and Silvano Gai (Attorney Docket No. ANDIP001). It should benoted that an RDL indicator can also be located in other fields such asin FC Header 211.

According to various embodiments, the payload 207 of the fibre channelframe contains time stamp information inserted at each hop. In oneexample, time stamp information is inserted at the beginning of thepayload by shifting the existing time stamp information by apredetermined number of bytes. The time stamp information forcharacterizing a route can include entries such as the port number 221associated with the input port of a switch inserting the time stampinformation, a field identifying the switch 223 such as a world widename (WWN), a time stamp 227, and a reserved field for any additionalinformation such as error codes that a switch wishes to insert.

According to specific embodiments, the fibre channel payload 207includes a stack of 8-byte time stamp information entries. The timestamp information entries are used by a supervisor associated with afibre channel switch for determining route characteristics such as thelatencies between switches in a route.

It should be noted that the EISL header can include other fields such asa time-to-live (TTL) field. The time-to-live field is decremented ateach hop like the time-to-live field in a conventional IP packet.

FIG. 3 is a process flow diagram showing one example of generating aloopback frame at a source fibre channel switch associated with asupervisor. According to various embodiments, a fibre channel frame isgenerated at 301. In one embodiment, the fibre channel frames generatedis a conventional fibre channel frame valid for transmission in thefibre channel fabric. At 303, a loopback field such as an RDL indicatorin the fibre channel frame is set. Setting the loopback field can entailsetting an RDL indicator into an EISL header associated with the fibrechannel frame. At 305, the TTL field is set to a predetermined value. Inone embodiment, the TTL can be set to the same values used for settingother fibre channel frames that do not include a loopback indicator. Inone example, the TTL field a set to the value of 64.

Setting the TTL field to a high-value increases the likelihood that thefibre channel frame will reach its destination. However, setting toohigh a value may cause a frame that should be dropped to remain too longin a fibre channel fabric. At 307, the destination switch identifier ismaintained. In one embodiment, the exchange identifier is alsomaintained at the source fibre channel switch to allow the source fibrechannel switch to determine whether a loopback frame transmitted towarda destination has been successfully looped back from the destination. At309, the loopback frame is transmitted toward the destination. At 311,the loopback frame initially transmitted toward the destination isreceived after it is successfully looped back from the destination.According to various embodiments, the loopback frame received isdifferent from the loopback frame transmitted.

In one embodiment, the source and destination address fields in theloopback frame transmitted by a source are swapped when the loopbackframe is received by the source. Other fields and indicators such asoriginator and destination bits may also be changed. At 311, the sourcefibre channel switch then extracts the time stamp information insertedat the various hops in the route from the source fibre channel switch,to the loopback fibre channel switch, and back to the source fibrechannel switch. The time stamp information is provided to an associatedsupervisor at 313.

FIG. 4 is a process flow diagram showing one example of core fibrechannel switch RDL processing. Any fibre channel switch that a sourcefibre channel switch transmits to is referred to herein as a core fibrechannel switch. According to various embodiments a core fibre channelswitch can be an intermediate switch between a source and a destination.It should also be noted that a core fibre channel switch may determinethat it is the loopback fibre channel switch upon examining a loopbackframe.

At 401, synchronization is maintained with other fibre channel switchesin the fibre channel fabric. In typical implementations, synchronizationis maintained outside of the steps of FIG. 4. Synchronization can bemaintained using protocols such as NTP where switches in the fibrechannel fabric acquire a uniform time from one or more particular fibrechannel switches. At 403, the loopback frame is received at an inputport. It should be noted that a fibre channel switch can have one ormore input ports. In one embodiment, the port number associated with theinput port is maintained. At the input port, conventional fibre channelframe processing can also be performed. Conventional fiber channel frameprocessing can include dropping the frame if a time-to-live field isequal to 0 at 405. Otherwise, the time-to-live field is decremented.

At 407, time stamp information is added to the frame. Adding time stampinformation can entail shifting bytes in the frame, changing headerinformation, as well as adding information such as an input port number,the current time, and a field uniquely identifying the switch. It iscontemplated that in some embodiments, certain frames along the routemay not insert time stamp information. Nonetheless the techniques of thepresent invention provide mechanisms for determining characteristics fortransmission between many hops in a route between a source and thedestination. According to various embodiments, the process steps at acore fibre channel switch can be performed by a media access control(MAC) block used for forwarding fibre channel frames. An output port isthen selected using mechanisms such as a forwarding table. The loopbackframe is forwarded to the selected output port at 409. At 411, it isdetermined if the time-to-live field is equal to one.

If the time-to-live field is equal to one, the core fibre channel switchbecomes a loopback fibre channel switch for loopback processing. Fibrechannel switch loopback processing will be described in FIG. 5. If theTTL is not equal to one, it is determined if the frame is beingforwarded to either a switch that does not support RDL or to a host.According to various embodiments, hosts such as disks and disk arraysand switches that do not support RDL are not able to handle loopbackframes. A switch about to forward a loopback frame to a host or a switchthat does not support RDL instead sets the TTL to one at 417 andperforms loopback switch RDL processing. Otherwise the frame isforwarded at 415.

FIG. 5 is a process flow diagram showing loopback switch output port RDLprocessing. As noted above, a core fibre channel switch becomes aloopback fibre channel switch when the TTL is determined to be equal toone at the output port or the frame is about to be forwarded to a hostor a switch that does not support RDL. According to various embodiments,the loopback switch is where the RDL frame is looped back to the sourcefibre channel switch. It should be noted that a loopback switch may alsobe a destination switch in some examples, as the switch may beassociated with a host corresponding to the destination of the fibrechannel frame.

At 501, source and destination identifiers in the frame are swapped atthe output port of the loopback fibre channel switch. At 503, the TTL ischanged from one to a predetermined value large enough to allow theframe to reach the source fibre channel switch from the loopback fibrechannel switch. At 505, other source and destination information isswapped. In one example, originator and destination bits are setaccordingly at the output port of the loopback fibre channel switch.According to various embodiments, the output port number becomes aninput port performing functions similar to that of a core fibre channelswitch input port. At 507, time stamp information is added to the RDLframe. At 509, the frame is forwarded to an output port for transmittingthe frame towards a source. The RDL frame is forwarded at 511.

FIG. 6 is a process flow diagram showing one example of the RDL framegeneration for determining connectivity to a destination. A supervisormay wish to determine whether a destination is reachable from a sourcefibre channel switch. At 601, a fibre channel frame is generated.According to various embodiments, the frame generated is a valid fibrechannel frame. At 603, a loopback indicator is set. At 605, atime-to-live field is set to a predetermined value to allow the frame totravel to a loopback fibre channel switch. The TTL value may be based onthe size of the fibre channel fabric as well as the maximum length of aframe. At 607, identifiers associated with the source and destinationpair and the exchange identifier are maintained.

It should be noted that the process steps described in the variousprocess flow diagrams do not necessarily have to be performed in anyparticular order. For example, source and destination pair and exchangeidentifiers can be maintained before a loopback indicator is set or atime-to-live field is set. Variations are also possible. In one example,an exchange identifier and a source identifier are not maintained. Adestination identifier is maintained and some other sequence number ismaintained instead.

According to various embodiments, the source, destination, and exchangeidentifiers are maintained. At 609, the loopback frame is transmittedtoward the destination. The frame is then processed by various corefibre channel switches and sent back toward the source when the framereaches a loopback fibre channel switch. At 611, the looped back frameis received by the source fibre channel switch. In one embodiment, theloopback frame contains time stamp information associated with each ofthe hops the frame traversed in its route to and from the loopback fibrechannel switch. Header information in the looped back frame is comparedwith source and destination identifier and exchange identifierinformation maintained at 607. If the information corresponds, timestamp information is analyzed to determine if there is connectivity tothe loopback fibre channel switch at 613.

If time stamp information is available in the frame, the time stampinformation can be checked to determine what routes the frame traversedduring downstream as well as upstream transmission. As noted above,fields indicating what fibre channel switches the frame has traversedare included in time stamp information in the loopback frame. If nolooped back RDL frame corresponding to the maintained source,destination, and exchange identifier information is received, it can beinferred that there may be no connectivity to the destination.Similarly, if time stamp information indicates that the frame was loopedback before reaching a destination, it can be determined that noconnectivity exists. In one embodiment, a TTL value can be increased andanother attempt can be made to reach the destination where a TTL fieldmay have expired before the frame had a chance to reach its destination.

FIG. 7 is a process flow diagram showing one example of path discoveryprocessing. According to various embodiments, the supervisor may wish todetermine and how far along a path toward a destination a frame can betransmitted. One technique for determining a path is by setting thetime-to-live field to specific values. At 701, a variable such as acurrent_TTL variable is set to two. Setting a current_TTL variable totwo allows the frame to be transmitted to a next hop. As noted above,when a TTL variable is one, a fibre channel switch becomes a loopbackfibre channel switch. A fibre channel frame is generated at 703.Loopback indicator is set at 705.

The time-to-live field is set to equal the variable current_TTL at 707.At 709, identifiers associated with the source, destination, andexchange are maintained. The loopback frame is transmitted at 711. It isdetermined at 713 whether the loopback frame corresponding to themaintained source, destination, and exchange identifiers is received at713. According to various embodiments, the data included in receivedframes is analyzed. If a loopback frame corresponding to the maintainedinformation is received at 713, the current time-to-live field isincremented at 715. The fibre channel frame is then generated at 703,the type of the fibre channel frame is set to loopback at 705, and theTTL is set to the new current_TTL which is now 3. The frame will now betransmitted an additional hop. By incrementing the TTL, the fibrechannel frame is transmitted to more nodes in the network. A route froma source to a destination can also be gradually determined. If a loopback frame at 713 is not received, it is possible that a fibre channelswitch in the route between the source and the destination fibre channelswitch may be dropping frames. Using path discovery as described abovecan also be useful for determining round trip times even if switches inthe fibre channel fabric are not synchronized.

As described above, providing time stamp information may be performed ina variety of network devices. According to various embodiments, theswitch includes a processor, network interfaces, and memory. A varietyof ports, Media Access Control (MAC) blocks, and buffers can also beprovided as will be appreciated by one of skill in the art.

FIG. 8 is a diagrammatic representation of one example of a fibrechannel switch that can be used to implement techniques of the presentinvention. Although one particular configuration will be described, itshould be noted that a wide variety of switch and router configurationsare available. The fibre channel switch 801 may include one or moresupervisors 811. According to various embodiments, the supervisor 811has its own processor, memory, and storage resources.

Line cards 803, 805, and 807 can communicate with an active supervisor811 through interface circuitry 883, 885, and 887 and the backplane 815.According to various embodiments, each line card includes a plurality ofports that can act as either input ports or output ports forcommunication with external fibre channel network entities 851 and 853.The backplane 815 can provide a communications channel for all trafficbetween line cards and supervisors. Individual line cards 803 and 807can also be coupled to external fibre channel network entities 851 and853 through fibre channel ports 843 and 847.

External fibre channel network entities 851 and 853 can be nodes such asother fibre channel switches, disks, RAIDS, tape libraries, or servers.It should be noted that the switch can support any number of line cardsand supervisors. In the embodiment shown, only a single supervisor isconnected to the backplane 815 and the single supervisor communicateswith many different line cards. The active supervisor 811 may beconfigured or designed to run a plurality of applications such asrouting, domain manager, system manager, and utility applications.

According to one embodiment, the routing application is configured toprovide message forwarding and routing functionality. A utilityapplication can be configured to provide system clock and time stampfunctionality. A domain manager application 325 can be used to assigndomains in the fibre channel storage area network. Various supervisorapplications may also be configured to provide functionality such asquality of service (QoS) functionality for various fibre channelprotocol layers.

In addition, although an exemplary switch is described, theabove-described embodiments may be implemented in a variety of networkdevices (e.g., servers) as well as in a variety of mediums. Forinstance, instructions and data for implementing the above-describedinvention may be stored on a disk drive, a hard drive, a floppy disk, aserver computer, or a remotely networked computer. Accordingly, thepresent embodiments are to be considered as illustrative and notrestrictive, and the invention is not to be limited to the details givenherein, but may be modified within the scope and equivalents of theappended claims.

1. A method for providing route characteristic information in a fibrechannel fabric, the method comprising: providing a fibre channel frameat a source fibre channel switch, the fibre channel frame identifyingthe source fibre channel switch and a destination, wherein the fibrechannel frame includes a loopback field indicating that the fibrechannel frame should be looped back to the source fibre channel switch;transmitting the fibre channel frame downstream toward the destination;receiving the looped back fibre channel frame at the source fibrechannel switch, the loopback fibre channel frame including time stampinformation associated with a plurality of fibre channel switchesbetween the source fibre channel switch and the destination, wherein thetime stamp information provides information for determiningcharacteristics associated with upstream and downstream transmissionbetween the source fibre channel switch and the destination.
 2. Themethod of claim 1, wherein the fibre channel frame is looped back at aloopback fibre channel switch.
 3. The method of claim 2, wherein theloopback fibre channel switch is a fibre channel switch coupled to ahost associated with the destination of the fibre channel frame.
 4. Themethod of claim 1, wherein the source fibre channel switch and theplurality of fibre channel switches are synchronized.
 5. The method ofclaim 1, wherein the looped back frame further includes time stampinformation associated with the source fibre channel switch and theloopback fibre channel switch.
 6. The method of claim 5, wherein thetime stamp information allows determination of characteristicsassociated with upstream and downstream transmission between the sourcefibre channel switch, the plurality of fibre channel switches, and theloopback fibre channel switch.
 7. The method of claim 5, wherein thefibre channel frame includes a time-to-live field.
 8. The method ofclaim 1, wherein the fibre channel frame is looped back to the sourcefibre channel switch instead of being forwarded to a network entity thatdoes not support loopback.
 9. The method of claim 8, wherein the networkentity is a host;
 10. The method of claim 8, wherein the network entityis a switch that does not support fibre channel frames.
 11. The methodof claim 8, wherein the network entity is a fibre channel switch thatdoes not support remote domain loopback.
 12. The method of claim 1,wherein the fibre channel frame is looped back to the source fibrechannel switch when the time-to-live field reaches a predeterminedvalue.
 13. A method for providing route characteristic information in afibre channel fabric, the method comprising: receiving a fibre channelframe at a core fibre channel switch, wherein the fibre channel framecomprises a loopback field, a source identifier, and time stampinformation, the time stamp information associated with a plurality offibre channel switches the fibre channel frame passed through betweenthe source and the core fibre channel switch; and determining whether toforward the fibre channel frame or to loop back the fibre channel frame.14. The method of claim 13, wherein the fibre channel frame includes atime-to-live field.
 15. The method of claim 14, further comprisingdecrementing the time-to-live field when the fibre channel frame isreceived at the core fibre channel switch.
 16. The method of claim 13,wherein the frame is looped back if the time-to-live field reaches apredetermined value.
 17. The method of claim 13, wherein the frame islooped back if the time-to-live field reaches the value of
 1. 18. Themethod of claim 13, wherein the frame is looped back if the next hop forthe fibre channel frame is determined to be a switch that does notsupport frames with a loopback field.
 19. The method of claim 13,wherein the frame is looped back if the next hop for the fibre channelframe is a non fibre channel switch.
 20. The method of claim 13, whereinthe frame is looped back if the next hop for the fibre channel frame isa host.
 21. An apparatus for providing route characteristic informationin a fibre channel fabric, the apparatus comprising: means for providinga fibre channel frame at a source fibre channel switch, the fibrechannel frame identifying the source fibre channel switch and adestination, wherein the fibre channel frame includes a loopback fieldindicating that the fibre channel frame should be looped back to thesource fibre channel switch; means for transmitting the fibre channelframe downstream toward the destination; means for receiving the loopedback fibre channel frame at the source fibre channel switch, theloopback fibre channel frame including time stamp information associatedwith a plurality of fibre channel switches between the source fibrechannel switch and the destination, wherein the time stamp informationprovides information for determining characteristics associated withupstream and downstream transmission between the source fibre channelswitch and the destination.
 22. The apparatus of claim 21, wherein thefibre channel frame is looped back at a loopback fibre channel switch.23. The apparatus of claim 22, wherein the loopback fibre channel switchis a fibre channel switch coupled to a host associated with thedestination of the fibre channel frame.
 24. The apparatus of claim 21,wherein the source fibre channel switch and the plurality of fibrechannel switches are synchronized.
 25. A fibre channel switch in a fibrechannel fabric, the fibre channel switch comprising: a processoroperable to provide a fibre channel frame, the fibre channel frameidentifying the source fibre channel switch and a destination, whereinthe fibre channel frame includes a loopback field indicating that thefibre channel frame should be looped back to the source fibre channelswitch; an output interface coupled to the processor, the outputinterface configured to transmit the fibre channel frame downstreamtoward the destination; and an input interface coupled to the processor,the input interface configured to receive the looped back fibre channelframe at the source fibre channel switch, the loopback fibre channelframe including time stamp information associated with a plurality offibre channel switches between the source fibre channel switch and thedestination, wherein the time stamp information provides information fordetermining characteristics associated with upstream and downstreamtransmission between the source fibre channel switch and thedestination.
 26. The fibre channel switch of claim 25, wherein the fibrechannel frame is looped back at a loopback fibre channel switch.
 27. Thefibre channel switch of claim 26, wherein the loopback fibre channelswitch is a fibre channel switch coupled to a host associated with thedestination of the fibre channel frame.
 28. The fibre channel switch ofclaim 25, wherein the looped back frame further includes time stampinformation associated with the source fibre channel switch and theloopback fibre channel switch.
 29. The fibre channel switch of claim 28,wherein the time stamp information allows determination ofcharacteristics associated with upstream and downstream transmissionbetween the source fibre channel switch, the plurality of fibre channelswitches, and the loopback fibre channel switch.
 30. The fibre channelswitch of claim 28, wherein the fibre channel frame includes atime-to-live field.
 31. The fibre channel switch of claim 25, whereinthe fibre channel frame is looped back to the source fibre channelswitch instead of being forwarded to a network entity that does notsupport loopback.